Returning Value Blog

What’s the purpose of a corporation? For the last 50 years, the answer was “to maximize shareholder value.” But, on August 19, CEOs of 181 leading U.S. businesses, including Amazon, Apple, General Motors and Walmart, pledged to broaden the scope.

Has your organization received any public or private grants to fund its growth? Grants sometimes require an independent audit by a qualified accounting firm. Here’s what grant recipients should know to help facilitate matters and ensure compliance at all levels.

Every financial transaction your company records generates nonfinancial data that doesn’t have a dollar value assigned to it. Though auditors may spend most of their time analyzing financial records, nonfinancial data can also help them analyze your business from multiple angles.

Your CPA offers a wide menu of services. An audit is a familiar type of attestation service that provides a formal opinion about whether the company’s financial statements conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Businesses use two types of audits to gauge financial results: internal and external. Here’s a closer look at how they measure up.

Standard cost accounting doesn’t necessarily work for lean operations. Instead, lean accounting offers a simplified reporting alternative that generates more timely, relevant financial data. But it’s not right for every situation.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently voted to finalize two related standards aimed at improving audits of accounting estimates and the work of specialists. Though the new, more consistent guidance would apply specifically to public companies, the effects would likely filter down to audits of private entities that use accounting estimates or rely on the work of specialists.

Distinguishing between liabilities and equity on a company’s balance sheet may seem straightforward. But difficulties arise when it comes to the terms of complex securities and financial contracts like redeemable equity instruments, equity-linked or indexed instruments, and convertible instruments.

In recent years, external auditors have focused more attention on related party transactions. Although related party transactions aren’t necessarily bad, they do raise some concerns about the risk of misstatement or omission in financial reporting.